Wondering what to do after you migrate to Confluence Cloud?

While moving from a Data Center setup to the Cloud offers a number of benefits – like automatic updates, enhanced security, and new features – the work doesn't stop once migration is complete. Post-migration is a chance to rethink how your team organizes and shares content to make the most out of everything Confluence Cloud has to offer.

In this guide, we provide you with some essential tips and best practices for fine-tuning Confluence after moving to the Cloud – setting your users up for a pleasing experience.

Review and clean up migrated content

One of the first things you’ll want to do is evaluate the relevance and quality of your content. Whether you are reviewing your intranet, knowledge base, or documentation site, take the time to identify outdated, redundant, or trivial pages that can be archived or deleted. This cleanup not only declutters your Confluence instance but also enhances user experience by keeping content focused and up-to-date.

Post-migration is also a good opportunity to take a moment and consider the structure and hierarchy of your Confluence spaces – should any spaces be merged or divided further according to your current user group needs? Adjusting your space hierarchy can make navigation easier for users.

Lastly, take stock of the apps that made it with you to Cloud. Ensure your team has been sufficiently onboarded and is aware of what role each app plays in the new environment. And as you settle in post-migration, take note of any new cloud-native options that could offer even more functionality.

Update and evolve your content strategy

After migrating, it’s a good idea to re-evaluate your user audiences and your Confluence structure. Does your knowledge base, intranet, or documentation site effectively cater to the users interfacing with your instances today (and not last year)?

You’ll also want to schedule periodic reviews and content audits to ensure your Confluence content remains relevant and up-to-date. Along the way, stay informed about organizational changes, such as new processes, tools, or policies, and adjust your content accordingly. Encourage teams to proactively share updates or request new content as needs arise. Treat your content strategy as a living process, and you’ll ensure it continues to deliver value and meet the evolving needs of your organization.

Finally, incorporate new tools and integrations into your Confluence content strategy as your tech stack evolves. Confluence Cloud allows for faster, more time-efficient content collaboration between users. Review whether your current content approach leverages Cloud features like that.

If you’re working on an intranet, read some of our tips on improving your Confluence intranet content strategy.

Leverage Cloud-specific features to enhance your content

Make sure your users know how to take advantage of Confluence Cloud’s enhanced search capabilities to improve content discoverability. Smarter search algorithms and filters mean users can find the information they need a lot faster, pumping up productivity across your organization.

One of the handiest perks? Page and space analytics (a premium Atlassian feature). With detailed insights into page views, user activity, and engagement, you can see exactly how your content is being used. This data makes it easy to spot what’s working and what might need a refresh (or a total re-think), helping you keep your content sharp and relevant for your users.

And if you’re using Refined Sites for Confluence, you can take advantage of a range of useful Cloud-specific features: promoting specific search results for your users, creating an unlimited number of Confluence sites for all your different user audiences, and more. You’ll also have our extensive help site documentation to help you and your users in post-migration Confluence site-building.

Implement user onboarding and trainings

Getting your users up to speed in the new Cloud environment is key to a smooth transition. Offer training sessions to help everyone feel confident navigating Confluence Cloud, and be sure to provide clear, easy-to-access resources and documentation for ongoing support. Think video tutorials, quick reference guides, or even interactive walkthroughs to make learning fun and intuitive.

You can also create Confluence content specifically for Cloud environment onboarding. Tools like Refined Sites for Confluence let you customize your instance to make things even more user-friendly. Add banners to spaces for important updates, or go a step further and personalize the design to guide specific users or teams – helping everyone stay informed and find what they need faster.

To keep things running, set up feedback systems so users can easily share what’s working and what’s creating roadblocks. This way, you can continually improve both your Confluence content and the overall user experience.

Plan for a scalable Confluence future

Last but not least, you’ll want to set up your Confluence space and user permissions to  anticipate the growth of teams and departments in your organization. 

To do that, we recommend developing a scalable structure to your Confluence instance. What do we mean by that? Spaces with a standardized, similar structure that can easily have content sections added or removed based on user needs. That way, you’ll be able to easily replicate pages as your organization grows, while maintaining an orderly, easy-to-navigate experience for your users. 

Refined Sites for Confluence allows you to do all of that easily. You can make use of pre-designed, customizable Confluence templates to quickly create well-structured landing pages for your sites. At the same time, you’ll enjoy granular user permissions to ensure specific users see only what you want them to.

I spoke to Dennis, one of our Product Managers, about how Refined Sites for Confluence is helping our customers grow their post-migration offering.

“One great benefit on Cloud is how seamlessly Refined Sites integrates content from both Confluence and JSM,” says Dennis. “Being able to connect both Confluence information and JSM functionality on the same landing pages on the same site allows for unique sites that cover a lot of use cases.”

The Cloud platform of course always ensures you’re up to date with the latest fixes, security patches and features. This allows you to focus on building and using your site, ensuring you utilize the tools and platform in an efficient way.

Regardless of the tools you decide to use, make sure you stay up-to-date on new and upcoming Confluence Cloud tools as it evolves, and find resources that help you stay informed. 

Here’s a hint: Bookmark Atlassian’s own blog of regular feature updates for easy, timely reading.

Final thoughts

Migrating to Confluence Cloud opens up a treasure chest of possibilities for improved collaboration, content management, and user experience. 

But to get the most out of it, post-migration tasks are essential. With some thoughtful, targeted attention, you’ll set up Confluence for long-term success. Keep things fresh by regularly reviewing your strategy, and don’t forget to stay in the loop on new tools and features. The cloud’s always evolving, and so should your Confluence playbook.

If you’re considering migrating your Confluence instances to the Cloud, let us help you out – book a meeting with one of our experts for personalized advice.

New to Refined Sites for Confluence? Try it now with a 30-day free trial from the Atlassian Marketplace.